Jump Into The Lion's Mouth: Let It All Out!

Learn an alternative way to free yourself from compulsive eating/drinking and other harmful behavior

Jump Into The Tiger's Mouth—Be Free!

Why do we do things we know are not good for us, either for our health or our self-esteem and happiness? For instance, we all know how to eat healthy, and yet we don't always do it. Why is that? Why do we gobble down a carton of ice cream, or a bag of chips, mindlessly, or anxiously? Why do we do things we know will end up making us feel bad? We all do it, some more often than others. If you feel bothered by something like this, then here is help for you. Please read on.

If you really look at the times you eat what you know is not great for you, drink, smoke, or do whatever un-healthy thing you may be doing, you'll see that it's because you don't want to feel bad. You're actually try to get rid of ‘feeling bad’. You don't know what else to do, so you reach for the food or the drink. You know how it works— you have done it many times before. There is this feeling of familiarity, which creates a certain feeling of safety. Maybe you have been doing this for many years already, and the longer you do it, the more automatic and 'way of life' it feels to you and your loved ones.

Sometimes when we have gained too much weight, have gotten drunk too often, and our loved ones have begun to nudge us to seek help, we begin to think we need to stop. 'Just do it', is the kick-butt approach to compulsive behaviors. But how long does it work? When you look back at yourself: How many times have you said you'd stop eating too much, drinking too much, or smoking joints, etc.? How many times have you stopped, only to start again, feeling even more guilty and defeated? I certainly have many times. In the past, I have stopped smoking at least twenty times, and I had "stopped eating" hundreds of times when I had an eating disorder.

In my healing work, I find that these unpleasant feelings come from our unconscious mind, specifically in the form of beliefs we created in childhood. I call them simply "childhood beliefs".

They are all negative self-talk, and include beliefs like:

"I am not good enough."

"There is something wrong with me."

"Nobody loves me."

"I am all alone."

"I will never be able to…"

"I am a hopeless case."

"Others just have it easier than me."

"I don't deserve to be happy. I don't deserve to be loved."

"If I don't help others I will be all alone."

I help the person regress back into childhood, specifically ito a situation where she created a specific belief in response to a painful situation. It's like we go back in time to the little girl, when she felt bad, and see with her the meaning she gave to a painful event. We then help the child release all the bad feelings she could not experience back then, and help her become aware that her beliefs are not true; they came from a misperception of the situation. All the examples above are not true; they only seem to be true in certain moments, and the problem is, we believe them to be true.

Such unconscious "emotional charges", which are negative beliefs loaded with emotion, remain trapped in our unconscious mind since childhood, festering and triggering us as teenagers and adults in countless events which our unconscious mind relates to specific negative beliefs we created in childhood.Completely unaware of that, we practice numbing these painful feelings with actions we later don't feel good about either. Not only do we end up feeling bad for (eating to much) but we also feel ashamed. This is the negative cycle of compulsions and addictions.

Jump Into The Tiger’s MouthHere is what I suggest you do when you feel bad and crave an escape: I warn you, it takes courage, but I know you can do it. Why? Because you are bigger than any of the feelings you could ever have. You are not your feelings, your true nature is love and peace, and this is still true, even in the midst of a storm of chips-munching, or whatever it is you may be doing.So here it is: When you have cravings or feel you want to eat/drink to get rid of feelings, go to your bedroom, sit or lie on the bed, open your mouth and let the breath move in and out as it wants to. Allow the energy in you to take over, and surrender. This is exactly the opposite of pushing feelings down; now you allow them to come up. You may have physical reactions, you may shudder, tremble, scream, cry…let it all happen. If you are screaming, you may hold a pillow over your mouth, so you can really let it come out. Doing this, you allow the trapped energy to move through you. It is like jumping into the tiger’s mouth: courageous and seemingly deadly. And the result is the opposite: you won't die from it, you will feel free and peaceful. If you can really let the whole emotion run through you, eventually you will experience deep peace and stillness. And that is the love I mentioned above: you are this peace, this feeling of "all is well", "I am whole and safe", "I am love", that is what you are!

The more often you can do this process, the faster you will free yourself from compulsion and addiction, and eventually you will be free of these emotional charges.

Let me know how you are doing with this, and share below!

This article was originally published at . Reprinted with permission from the author.